Manufacture of footwear



Dec. 30, 1.930. E. DEMPSEY ET AL 1,786,984

MANUFACTURE or FOOTWEAR Filed May 11. 1929 Jar fi T o s fellozkj attorney Patented Dec. 30, 1930 ED uun DEM?$1251.;ALLY- 1) EAR-L121 H. COSTELLOW, or PROVIDENCE, anon-E ISLAND, AS-

. 310 PHILLIESQBAKER'RUBBER company, or rnov nuncn.RHO Is AND,

SIGNQB A CORPORATION .OF RHODE ISLAND.

I 'MANUrAor'URu or igoori wuan;

Application fiieifivla ieaa steam. 362,380.

This 'inv'ention relates to the manufacture mate-rial; v 2:5

of'footwear,ancl-' more especially to that type ofi footwea r which is made ofrubberized In the making of such shoes it has been the practice heretofore to make the upper or such shoes in severalv pieces, the whole being built up,as it were, piece by p ece on-the last.

EIntlieassembling-,ofthese pieces it has been customary to first apply alining tothelast whose inner surface is a finished one.

To thislini'ng 3 has been "added: a :reinfOrcing counter around the rear lower part to give the heel portion of the shoe therequisite stiffness and strength. Over this counter the outer layers of the shoe are laid as Wvell as the external heel piece that forms tl19fi11- ished outer surface when the shoe is complete. These successive layers of material at the heel undoubtedly" produce the desired stiffness but do so at the expense of lightness and appearance, the edge of the reinforcing counter being clearly discernible in the finished shoe.

Although shoes are still being made multi-piece, it is now the vogue to cut the vamps, pockets and quarters from double texture cloth,suohas stockinette which is a knitted fabric having finished surfaces on .both sides. But with this material it has heretofore been necessary to add a counter over the and this particular application ofthe invenaccordance with-thepr-esent invention;

tion is herein disclosed, but it is to, be understood that this is merely illustrative and not heel portion of the shoe, thereby reducing the cost in respect to both material and labor and produces a lighter, better looking shoe having the strength andstiffness heretofore' attained by the'usual .metliods.

According to fthe. present invention, the upper orquarter. iszcut: without any heel portion, as it. were, the lower edge of theupper extending sharply upward from. the shank to. about the middle 'of theback of the shoe.

ire this. lower. edge a novel heel. piece is attached: preferably, being butt-stitched there- .lLOaSO that, internally at. least, the upperand this novel heehpiece-- form a continuoussurface; This. heel piece comprises an. inner facing?ofkinexpensive. sheeting whlch 1S preferablyv dyed to matchthe lining of the comes rather, stiff and gives. to the heel piece the counter effect required; The outer layer -isfrictibnsheeting. or.- Osnaburg, on which the heelfoxing or outerfinishingypiece is .laid. upper comprisingithis heel" piece requires. nolining and; no separate counter. Being stitched firmly to the heelpiece, the 'quarterneed not. extend downward-there ove y i'ndeedvinthe. improved upper of this j invention it shouldnotdo so, and'the finishing-heel; foxing i'sap'plied directly to the Osnaburg surface. As'iaiconsequeuce ingthefin- 1shedshoethere is at-the heel portiononly .the-. reinforcin-gheeli piece and. the external foxing' wh-ich togetherare relatively light in W6igl1t,; only slightly thicker than the top partof; the upper, and yet exceedingly strong nd st i rwh ul nized- It; is intendedthat thepatent shall cover by su-itableexpression in the appendedclaims 'whateven features-of; patentable novelty exist I in the invention disclosed.

In the. accompanying drawings:

Figurel is. a plan of upper shaped in and; reinforcing heelpieceattac-hed together.

Referring.- to the; drawings, theupper 1- is 'cut, from. a sheet; of? rubberizedmaterialisuch 7 as double texture cloth which has both its surfaces finished with a layer of vulcanizable rubber in between. This upper is of the type disclosed in our co-pending application Serial Number 362,389, filed as of'even date herewith, but this is to be taken as merely illustrative of any form of upper including those commonly used having two or more pieces, According to the methodof this in; vention the upper whether made of one or 'more pieces is so shaped as to have no heel V port1ons,but'terminates along l1nes 2 extending upward from the shank 3 to a point well I up on the backnear where the top edge of the usual external heel foxing ends. The side Y extremities of thisupper are securedtogether 7 along a back seam d. To the" lower edge of the upperatjthe heel is attached thenovel pensive sheeting a preferably matching in reinforcing piece 5 shown in Figure 2.

This is made up of a light layer of inexcolor the doubletexture cloth ofthe quarter.

The middle layer 7) is also of inexpensive material, for example ground up rag stock.

The outer layer 0 is Osnaburg or :friction sheeting. The layers are firmly bound together by suitably calendering operations to r I 7 form a composite sheet from which the heel' piece is cutin the shape seen in Figure 5 The heel piece is butt-stitched to the lower edge 2 of the quarteras illustrated in Figure 3. The finished surface is'of course on the the insole the usual manner. 7 tional lmlng is required, nor need any'counplied thereto.

the quarter along a line'extending from the shank upward toward the back edge; cutting a reinforcing piece from stock having a finished surface on one side and a rubber impregnated surface on the other side; joining said reinforcing piece to the upper along the said line with the impregnated surface outward; and completing the manufacture of the shoeincluding applying the finishing the said reinforcing piece having a finished" surface on the insldeand having a rubber} impregnated surface on the outside adapted to receive a. finishing fox-ing directly ap- Sign'ed at Providence, Rhode Islaudythis 30th day of April,l929; c n ,EDMUND J. VDEMPSEY.

' EARLE H. COSTELLOW.

insidecand-ithe Osnaburg surface on the out- 7 side. Theupper when lasted is pulled down over the last and itsbottom edges secured'to I Noadditer be added be'cause the upper and the heel piece together provide the-finished inner surstitutes a counter-as it were. Accordingly the usual external finishing 'foxing can be :face'of the'shoe and the heel piece alone conapplied to the impregnated outer surface of the heel piece, its upper edge slightlyoverlapping thebutt seam 6. 7

When the shoe is finally subjected to vulcanization, the heel piece becomes exceedingly stifl; though pliable, and affords the requisite strength and support at the heel of the shoe. Yet there is no bulging of-the shoe at the heel and no discernible line at'the edge of the heel piece. The -appearance of the shoe is thus enhanced and because of the direct application of the foxing to the heel piece a stronger and tighter constructionat the heel is achieved. 1 And it is evident that by the method herein disclosed,'the cost of making the shoe isless than that of the usual shoe because of the obvious saving inmaterial and in labor. v v

What we claim as our nvention 1s:

, 1.]The method-of making a shoeof vulin canizable material which comprises cutting a quarter from stock-having finished surfaces onboth' sides and forming the lower. edge of 

